Missouri quarterback James Franklin doesn’t like painkillers of any kind, including aspirin. With his surgically repaired shoulder sore, Franklin chose to sit out last week’s game against Arizona State rather than play through the pain.

“I like to feel the pain to be my own judge of it,” he said, according to the paper. “I don’t want to numb it and then play and possibly hurt it more. The next thing I know I won’t be able to play for a couple weeks.”

Pinkel has since said the painkiller situation is a private matter and that Franklin is tough and if you haven’t noticed you’ve “been in a coma for the last few years.”

Franklin, with a knee injury, played the Texas A&M game last year without painkillers. He says he doesn’t hold Pinkel’s comments against him.

“I’m sure he has his own reasons for it,” Franklin told the Tribune. “I don’t really know. I’m not too bothered about it, because I know sometimes when you say something it doesn’t always come out the right way. I know the coaches didn’t criticize my decisions off the field, and I don’t criticize theirs…I know he didn’t mean anything by it.”